TRAVERSE CITY -- On a night when the local running community gathered to celebrate the career of three-time Olympian Suzy Favor Hamilton, the real winners were families dealing with cancer.
To open the annual Bayshore-In-Training kickoff event Friday night at Northwestern Michigan College's Hagerty Center, the group presented a check for $21,890 to the Munson Women's Cancer Fund. The money was raised through the Women's Remembrance Run -- held in October each year -- and is earmarked for expenses not typically covered by medical insurance.
Ruth Bloomer, leadership giving coordinator for the Munson Foundation, said last year 66 women and their families were assisted by the fund.
"Too many women fall through the cracks," she said. "This helps them put all of their strength and effort into battling the cancer, not worrying about their finances."
Remembrance Run volunteer Karen Wells said a total of $33,000 was raised during the first 10 years of the event. She said the amount given Friday represented a 400 percent increase over last year. Much of the credit, she said, goes to employees of the Bill Marsh Family Auto Mall, who signed on to help with fund raising in 2007.
Wells said the message delivered by Favor Hamilton on Friday night was fitting, considering Favor Hamilton uses her fame -- and an art degree from the University of Wisconsin -- to help raise money for cancer-stricken children.
"She pointed out numerous times that her husband, her daughter and the community were most important to her, not winning a gold medal," Wells said. "I think that's what the kids here will really take away from this -- that family and giving back to the community really matter most."
Favor Hamilton, 39, won 11 high school state titles in her home state of Wisconsin, then followed that by notching nine NCAA titles and 23 Big Ten championships for the Badgers. She was named Big Ten Athlete of the 1990s and now has a conference award named after her.
As Favor Hamilton's fame grew, she starred in television commercials for Reebok, Pert Plus shampoo and Nike and was featured in Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Rolling Stone, Runner's World, Harper's Bazaar, Men's Journal, Sports Illustrated, Sports Illustrated for Kids and Track & Field News.
But Favor Hamilton's ultimate athletic goal -- winning a gold medal -- never came to pass. In fact, during the 1992, 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games, she never won a single medal.
It was a painful disappointment, but Favor Hamilton said coming up short may have the best thing for her in the long run. In fact, she said that while she normally shows a DVD of her career highlights whenever she appears as a guest speaker, she is in the process of putting together a "lowlight" disc showing her worst finishes.
"That's when you learn the most, when you fail," she told a crowd of about 200. "I won all the time. I wasn't prepared for failure. I can't complain about winning all the time, but losing can be a positive experience.
"You're going to have good races and you're going to have bad races. It's the bad races that teach you the most about life.
"You can pout for 10 minutes, 20 minutes, but then you have to get over it and move on," she said. "It's just a race. Realizing that helped change my life and my perspective."
Favor Hamilton, who now says that her daughter is her gold medal, said she was so driven to run -- even at an early age -- that running became "self medication."
"Whenever I felt blue, I'd run," she said. "Running was the drug that made me feel good.
"I didn't realize that until I had my daughter two years ago. I stopped running, and I just kept getting sadder and sadder. That wasn't like me because I'm a pretty upbeat and positive person.
"I had to fight through depression."
Favor Hamilton said that she eventually overcame her depression through therapy and learned to run for the fun of it. She admits she had to adjust to the notion that she doesn't have to win all the time, especially when everyone expects her to win every race she enters, even now.
But it was a healthy transition for her, she said, and it helped her gain perspective.
She said she wished she hadn't put so much pressure on herself to win a gold medal.
"I should have relaxed and enjoyed it more," she said. "At the starting line I should have been like, 'Wow, I'm in the Olympics. This is so cool. Hi, Mom.' "
Print this story
E-mail this story
